SEO Travel Digital Marketing Workshop

SEO Travel

SEO Travel Digital Marketing

Workshop26/2/15

SEO Travel

What Are We Covering?• Why SEO?• The Key Principles of SEO• Content Marketing and How We Get Featured in

Top Tier Publications like the Washington Post & Daily Mail

• Case Studies of great digital marketing in action• Personalised Analysis of Attendees Websites

SEO TravelWho Am I?

• Travel enthusiast & digital marketer• Set up SEO Travel in 2011• On average SEO Travel clients improve organic

traffic by more than 100% in 12 months• Worked with lots of travel sites in a wide variety of

areas, from destination specialists to independent affiliates

• Helped clients rank for some of the most competitive phrases in travel as well as exponentially increase traffic

SEO Travel

SEO Travel

Why SEO?• Huge variety of phrases to be found through, not all

about headline phrases• Combination of good content and promotion can

bring great results which is cumulative, not reliant on ongoing advertising costs

• Reach people when they are searching to buy and using commercial queries as well as researching

• Social media good for brand exposure but people not looking to buy there, PPC ongoing expense, PR not at point of purchase

SEO Travel

SEO TravelWhat is SEO?

“Search engine optimisation (SEO) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine's unpaid results—often referred to as "natural," "organic," or "earned" results.”


• Different types of SEO – old spammy way, good sustainable way

• Approach of many SEO agencies isn’t optimum– Tunnel vision approach focused on just a few keywords– Better to set up your site well and optimise for all

keywords, create and promote great content and grow the reach of your brand – Authority SEO

• Sustainable strategy which steadily grows the performance of your site so it can become a recognised brand in the future, rather than crash and burn approach which can lead to penalties


Two key aspects:

• On Page – Text, URLs, Site Speed, Images etc

• Off Page – Links, Social Media, Brand mentions etc

SEO Travel

On Page Optimisation

SEO TravelKeyword Research

• Keyword Research process is one of the most important to successful SEO

• There are lots of excellent, free tools out there to use

• Don’t rely on headline phrases and forget the rest - longtail traffic is abundant and less competitive

• Different types of phrase: Transactional (luxury holidays), Informational (where is hot in December), Navigational (tripadvisor Crete)

• Structure your site around your keyword research findings

SEO Travel

Less Competitive Sub Pages

Most Competitive Topic Page

Homepage

Informational pages

Blog








Informational pages

Informational pages

Informational pages

SEO TravelHoliday type phrasesInformational phrases

Location phrases

Social media content phrases

SEO TravelKeyword Research

Tools:• Keyword Planner• Google Auto suggest• Google related search• Ubersuggest• Your Competition

SEO Travel

On Page Elements• URLs• Title tags• Copy• Headers• Images• Video• Internal Links• External Links

SEO TravelIMAGES VIDEO

COPY HEADER TAGS

EXTERNAL LINKSINTERNAL LINKS

TITLE TAG

URL

SEO TravelOther Factors

• Site Speed• User Engagement• Sitemaps• Hosting Location• Mobile Friendly

SEO TravelPanda

• Google’s update in 2011 targeting content quality• Important to avoid copied text• Also important to have lots of

content on key pages• Usability also plays a big part – make

sure you are satisfying user’s query

SEO TravelBlogging

• Everyone should be blogging!• Great way to get traffic through phrases

higher in the buying line• Also create content targeted at social

media and getting shares• Can attract natural links to your site• Shows you as an authority in your niche• Establishes trust which helps conversions

SEO Travel

Off Page Optimisation

SEO Travel

SEO TravelGood Link Profile

• Mainly branded• No repetition of anchor text• Mixture of sources – in content, sidebar,

directories, follow/nofollowed etc• Misconceptions – comments bad,

directories bad, forums bad. Everything is good if it has potential to raise awareness of brand

SEO Travel

Page it appears on

Body of page – editorial best

Surrounding content

Anchor text

Target URL

SEO TravelThings to Avoid

• Over optimised anchor text• Spammy links just for SEO• Link Networks• Anything automated• Anything which wouldn’t naturally happen

SEO TravelWhere to Get Links

• Directories• Friends• Guest Posts• Competitor Analysis• Content Marketing• PR

SEO TravelContent Marketing

• When done right can gain coverage on the biggest websites on the internet

• Amazing for brand visibility, SEO, reputation management, referral traffic etc

• Key is to create something of interest for large publications – doesn’t need to be the brand message

• Find the right hook and you can ‘go viral’

SEO TravelContent Marketing

• Game of Thrones in real life infographic

• Featured on more than 100 websites

• Including Washington Post, Business Insider, Mashable

• All time high traffic for client

• Referral traffic 245% higher than previous year

SEO TravelHow Did We Do It?

• Game of Thrones hook was extremely strong – we released graphic around end of season

• Created something that looked great• Offered exclusive initially to a top-tier

publication• Compiled an extensive outreach list• Promoted like crazy on social media










• Game of Thrones hook was extremely strong – we released graphic around the end of the season















SEO TravelOther Examples

• http://www.swissotel.com/promo/etiquette-map/

• http://www.contiki.com/roadtrip• http://live.intrepidtravel.com/• http://www.keepinspiring.me/best-

bucket-list-ideas/

http://www.swissotel.com/promo/etiquette-map/



http://www.contiki.com/roadtrip



http://live.intrepidtravel.com/


http://www.keepinspiring.me/best-bucket-list-ideas/

http://www.keepinspiring.me/best-bucket-list-ideas/

SEO TravelSwissotel

• Swissotel Etiquette• http://www.contiki.com/roadtrip• http://live.intrepidtravel.com/• http://www.ovolohotels.com/en/hotels/

sydney/ovolo-1888-darling-harbour/#!our-story/c1udm

• Example of travel blogger post• http://www.keepinspiring.me/best-bucket-list-

ideas/





SEO TravelSwissotel




ideas/









ideas/









ideas/





SEO TravelSummary

• Do in depth keyword research• Set your site up correctly• Create great content and promote

it well• Always be pursuing great links

SEO TravelQuestions?

QUESTIONS?